Les bienfaits de la colère

For some, The Upside of Anger will be little more than a beep under the radar. I guess part of the blame belongs to New Line Cinema's marketing campaign. With the prolific cast on board this doesn't seem too hard of a task (Or has Kevin Costner still not been forgiven for Waterworld?). Anyways, for those who do have the chance of seeing the film, they might find themselves enjoying the low-key romantic comedy. It's rather surprising a man directed The Upside of Anger, as it is more than anything else about female companionship. Director Mike Binder's look at these five women ranges from the ordinary (a character who has the ridiculous notion she's repulsive and fat) to the confusing (an utterly confounding where the women start laughing while a guy sits as oblivious as me). In a way, I feel like Kevin Costner's character- not always fully comprehending, yet oddly compelled.

Joan Allen plays Terry, a mother who suspects her husband is fooling around with a perky Swedish secretary. She finds comfort in the company of a retired baseball player (Kevin Costner) that she drinks with. It doesn't take too long for their relationship to turn physical and then something deeper yet. Terry has four daughters. The eldest (Alicia Witt) wants nothing more than to distance herself from Terry after college. Emily (Keri Russell) is a dancer workaholic who Terry is worried doesn't eat enough. Andy (Erika Christensen) is hired as a production assistant by the lowlife producer of Costner's radio show. And the youngest Popeye (Evan Rachel Wood) has a crush on a new kid.

Although it doesn't stray too far from the conventions of the genre, the film does try new things. Perhaps most notably, the Upside of Anger is a romantic comedy where the two characters rolling in the sheets (so to speak) aren't two attractive twenty-year olds. Also, while Terry and her daughters share a close relationship, they're rarely confidantes. A number of times they aren't even friendly to each other.

Also, Mike Binder effectively underplays the film. Something as mundane as a character slurping soup becomes an exercise in tense feelings. And the underplayed and relaxed nature helps draw attention to the performances. Kevin Costner's character could be imagined as the character in Bull Durham or Field of Dreams once the magic has gone. Although he's a drunk slob, he is also a kind and likable guy. All four daughters (particularly Evan Rachel Wood) give good performances. This movie however belongs to Joan Allen. Somewhat paradoxically with the film's underlying message, Allen's best scenes often draw from anger. In one scene, she catches Andy in bed with the producer and unable to say anything, she huffs off in Olympian fury.

For most of its one-hundred-thirty-five minute length, The Upside of Anger is a pleasant romantic comedy with something to say.

I had no idea of the plot other than Kevin Costner was a retired baseball player who drank and smoked weed. I would see just about anything with Kevin in it. It seems to me that the director was trying to put too many different facets of emotion in the film... abandonment, grieve, anger, despair, self pity, humor, hatred, cynicism. As a divorced mother of six, some of the lines "hit too close to home" so that tells me that the essence of the pain was captured. I am still thinking about the ending which really surprised me. I can't even begin to imagine how a wife who felt as she did could handle that. All in all it was a good movie, and I recommend it to anyone who has lost control of their anger in trying to deal with disappointment and resentment.

Paranoia could be viewed as supreme egotism: why would everyone follow you? Why would they waste their time? Most things happen for reasons that have nothing to do with you. One thing I liked about this was it placed "normal" people in unusual, stressful situations and showed how they might react. Unfortunately, we often don't get a chance to work out our reactions in advance, as characters in a script. But it would be helpful not to strike back unless attacked. Maybe the point here was that anger can be useful, but ineffective if used indiscriminately. As dramatized in this family, there is a difference between "speaking your mind" and anger. Interesting plot twists, some implausible to some viewers. The ending summed up the message for me: why am I angry?

Once every so often a movie comes along that hits all the right notes with its audience. It has just the right amount of each element that makes a great film and then kicks it up a notch with more.

Mike Binder has done all this with his new film, The Upside of Anger. Upside of Anger opens at a scene from the end of a movie; a scene that stays in the audience's mind, making us trying to guess its cause all the way through the movie. We meet Terry Wolfmeyer, a middle aged woman with four daughters who is trying to keep their and her own life in balance. Terry's husband has just recently left the family causing Terry to spiral into alcohol and bitterness. Along comes Denny Davies, an ex-baseball player, current radio show host, and Terry's neighbor. He too, is a fan of the drink, and strikes a friendship with Terry along with a fatherly role for her daughters. At its root, it's Terry's story about how she deals with the continuous growing of her relationships, of her daughters, and of herself.

Mike Binder, the writer and director, has a great way of showing the lives of all his characters. He is able to make this movie just as life really is; its funny, depressing, uplifting, bittersweet, and sometimes tragic. He seems to be able to capture real life on camera and display it with all its truth and realism. The writing is completely intelligent, hilarious writing is mixed with scenes of great emotion. Binder never relies on action or dialogue that will cue laughter or tears; it comes naturally through the writing. It works differently for every person in the audience.

Joan Allen is fabulous as the angry mother, Terry. Her performance contains each the real emotion of a mother with all that she is dealing with. She plays it with vigor that strikes that fear in us that we all know mothers can emit, but we also see her lighter funny side. Kevin Costner does very well as Denny, who, surprise surprise, is a baseball player. His performance is hilarious as the washed up player who beams an empathetic hippie attitude. Costner, in his first good and well-written role in a while, is a relief to have. Also hilarious is Director, Mike Bender's Shep, Denny's radio show producer. The four daughters also add four different personalities to the family that interact very nicely.

The Upside of Anger is a wonderfully acted movie, and what's more, it is superbly written. It captures a true essence of family life. And, while its hilarious, it's a refreshing kind of humor that is very mature and not based on the stupidity that many people think we want to see. Mike Binder is successful at making a movie about the characters and about life that actually does a good job at representing both things. Upside of Anger gets 5 stars (out of 5)

"The Upside of Anger" showcases many good performances but make no mistake about it, this movie's clearly the Joan Allen Show. And what a show she puts on.

About an hour into the film, Allen's Terry Wolfmeyer bursts into a room unannounced. Her reaction lasts just a few seconds, but they're priceless. Writer-director Mike Binder keeps the camera on Allen and what we get is a moment of sheer brilliance, one that should be shown to all acting students.

Binder does something awfully bold in this film. He lets his story revolve around two seemingly unlikable people - Terry and her neighbor, Danny Davies (Kevin Costner). They're two self-destructive, terribly selfish, occasionally boorish people who wallow in their own pity. Terry's furious and hurt because her husband left her for his Swedish secretary, while Danny's a former Detroit Tiger who now spends signing baseball memorabilia and running a radio talk show where he refuses to talk baseball.

They find solace in each other, not because they particularly like each other, but because they each need a drinking buddy. But thanks to two very fine performances, they're likable.

Much to Binder's credit, he doesn't simply settle his story on Terry and Danny. Wisely, Binder lets his story take its time. We get to know Terry's children, too. There's Andy (Erika Christensen), who's dating an older lech Shep (Binder); Popeye (Evan Rachel Wood), the youngest and budding filmmaker; Emily (Keri Russell), who feels unloved; and rebellious Hadley (Alicia Witt). These young women have their own personalities and spending time with them makes the story richer.

Costner is awfully comfortable playing Danny. In fact, Danny is Crash Davis, slightly older and a bit more cynical. Danny doesn't like clinging to his baseball past, but he knows that's all he's got. It's nice to see Costner in these roles. He plays them better than most and it's a loose, relaxed performance that never goes over the top.

But the movie really is all about Allen. It's tough turning a self-destructive and pitiful alcoholic into someone we want to spend time with. But Allen simply sparkles in the role. She's smart, quick-witted and fraying at the edges, trying to keep her wits about her. We not only understand her roller-coaster emotions, but also find them believable. Performances like hers are truly rare and Allen does nothing wrong here.

Had this film been released last year, Hilary Swank might very well not have walked away with her second Academy Award. Not only does Allen deserve a nomination for her remarkable performance in this film, she also probably deserves to win it.

What surprising about Binder's story is that despite all its warmth and humor, there's still a very nice and unexpectedly dark edge to it all. It's refreshing to see a film where the characters and the situations aren't exactly all that rosy. And even moments that could have easily been played for their melodrama are brilliantly underplayed and toned down. They work much better this way, than having characters resort to histrionics.

The film's voice-over narration, on the other hand, gets a bit preachy. And a revelation at the end is a bit questionable. Astute viewers would figure it out because that's really the only rational way to deal with it. Binder sort of lets us in on it very early on in the film.

We never get to see the title's real meaning in this film. That, presumably, comes after the end credits and all these characters get on with their lives. Nevertheless, "The Upside of Anger" is a good film studded with a great performance by one of today's finest actresses.